The petroleum, chemical, and cement industries, among others, often require the transport of slurries (solid rich liquids) as part of their process handling. For instance, in the oil and gas drilling industry, mixtures coming from the well in the drilling process must be processed for study, and or reuse. Because such mixtures often contain gas also, separation of the liquids, gases and solids is often required. Then, each phase is further processed as needed. The separation can involve devices such as separators, ‘gas busters’, hydrocyclones and shakers. The combination of several vessels and the piping, valves, and control schemes to keep them all working together, can be expensive in terms of both money and space requirements.
There is a need then for a better solution, a more compact, less expensive step for separation of these phases.